That’s actually a mistake quoted in Dragon. According to Wood: “The scales in the corners don’t show a thief sneaking up on the hapless pair, by the way, as was once reported in Dragon. They show the artist at her easel, working away on the painting.”

I have to laugh every time I see that last picture. It’s like the lizardman (or troglodyte) is totally bored and exasperated at once again having to carry around some scantly-clad fainted human female. “Sigh… seriously, when will the dragon get tired of virgin sacrifices? They keep arriving every damn day!”

Does that thing in the “Motherhood” pic exists as an actual D&D monster? Because it should, it is adorable. Like a reptile/butterfly hybrid. It’s funny how often these artworks depict monsters that actually are never pictured in the Monster Manual… probably the artist just drew whatever came to mind and sold it to any company who needed some cool monster art.